A British photojournalist who was allegedly killed by his teenage son at a popular hiking trial in California has been remembered by colleagues as “courageous and beloved”.
Paul Lowe died from a stab wound to the neck, according to the County of Los Angeles Medical Examiner’s office, and his 19-year-old son Emir was set to make his first court appearance later on Wednesday at the West Covina Courthouse after being charged with murder, but the hearing was delayed.
The 60-year-old – a photographer who covered conflicts including the siege of Sarajevo during the Bosnian war, the fall of the Berlin Wall and Nelson Mandela’s release from prison – was found dead on October 12 in the San Gabriel Mountains.
Santiago Lyon, former vice president and director of photography at The Associated Press (AP), paid tribute to Mr Lowe, having worked with him during the siege of Sarajevo in the early 1990s.
According to AP, Mr Lyon said: “Paul was a very talented, courageous and committed photojournalist who repeatedly put himself in harm’s way to show the world the reality of war zones and humanitarian crises around the world.
“He then became an accomplished and well-respected educator dedicated to preparing future generations of photojournalists.
“His untimely death has profoundly affected the photojournalism community and we are in shock.”
Mr Lowe was a professor at the University of the Arts London, a visiting professor in war studies at King’s College London (KCL), and taught at an academy through the VII Foundation, which trains emerging visual journalists from communities underrepresented in the media.
The foundation said: “Paul was a courageous and beloved comrade, and a deeply devoted father and husband.
“The loss is shocking and overwhelming, and our hearts go out to his wife and family.”
KCL said the award-winning photojournalist would be “deeply missed”.
A statement posted on X, formerly Twitter, read: “A friend, colleague and collaborator whose work had a huge impact in shining a spotlight on the Siege of Sarajevo and addressing its legacy, we were privileged to work with him on several projects related to art and reconciliation.
“His boundless energy, warmth, creativity, initiative and enthusiasm were contagious and uniquely inspiring. He will be deeply missed.
“We send our deepest condolences to his family at this difficult time.”
Mr Lowe, who wrote several books about his war reporting, told The Guardian in 2022 that he “became preoccupied with what happens to ordinary, educated, cultured people when they’re reduced to the medieval conditions caused by a siege” when he was in Sarajevo.
“People would risk their lives for a little pleasure,” he told the newspaper. “And it could be very hard on kids, who obviously didn’t want to be stuck indoors.
“During quieter periods, they were able to go outside more — I took a picture of children swimming in the river during a ceasefire. But the river, like so much of the city, was clearly visible to Serbian snipers.
“One winter, I attended an awful scene: a group of five or six children had been killed by a shell while sledging in front of their house.”
According to police, the incident around his death happened at 3.28pm at Mount Baldy Road, near Stoddard Canyon Falls.
A statement from the sheriff’s department said officers responding to call about an assault with a deadly weapon found a “white male adult suffering trauma to his upper torso”.
It added: “San Bernardino Fire Department personnel responded and pronounced the victim dead at the scene.
“A white male adult was seen driving away from the scene and was subsequently involved in a solo traffic collision a few miles away. The male was detained pending further investigation.”
The Los Angeles County Sheriff’s Department told the PA news agency: “The District Attorney’s office filed one count of murder on suspect Emir Lowe for the murder of his father Christian Paul Lowe.”
